Thursday, February 22, 2018

Dear Friends and Veggie Lovers

Friends and Veggie Lovers,

2017 was a year to remember in a lot of ways. We had a hundred year flood (the second in twelve years), corn and tomatoes until Oct 30th and some exciting new products. However, we made some changes at the end of the year and in early 2018 we hope will improve your experience at SIW. Farming vegetables on a small scale(<50 acres) continues to be a challenge. We continue to grow our barn dinners to compliment our efforts and vertically integrate some of our products.

In mid July we had 8.5 inches of rain that knocked our stone wall out on to Creek Road in one 100+ft piece. We had to break the wall into pieces to push it off the road. We will be building it back in some fashion to allow for water to pass through while maintaining the look my Grandfather created.

The growing season was pretty typical with too much of this and not enough of that. Tomatoes were a challenge, corn held on until the end of the season with the warmest October in forever. It was a banner year for figs as the warm weather late in the year extended the season nicely. We picked figs on November 2nd! I’m not sure how they will survive the brutal cold we had in January. Also, we added the much sought after rice to our list of things to try with huge success. We harvested 3 varieties and over 20 pounds!! Everyone who has tried it (3 people) say it is very good indeed. This coming year we will up our acreage (to 1/10 of an acre) and hope to provide a little to our CSA members and the general population. I would say it was an above average season taking all 50+crops into account.

As previously mentioned, small scale farming continues to be a challenge. One of the many factors is providing products at prices that we cannot compete with. We hope the quality you can get from us sets us apart and is worth it to you. We know we pick our stuff fresher AND riper than most. With the added costs of handling such perishable items as a result of our attention to flavor and nutrition our prices are higher. If you think they are too high, pay what you think is fair.

You will see new faces at our produce stand as some of our employees have moved on to greener pastures. Please use these people to ask questions about whatever you want, they are there to serve you. If you cannot get the answer you desire feel free to call me at any time (610-715-7688).

Our barn dinners are going to continue to add to the whole farm experience and we have added some new chefs from far and wide to mix it up a little. We are expanding the usable space (a mega-spring cleaning) to provide for more guests. We will spruce it up a little to bring it in to the next century.

Our CSA and SIW bucks programs will be the same as before. Our CSA is $725 for a full share and $375 for a half share. With SIW Bucks you pay $400 and get instant credit for $440. Then you just work against that until you are out and then do it again and again and again…….